Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Listed below is the final Mentoring Session being offered in November. Since some of our sessions have generated a lot of interest, participants need to contact the Mentor prior to the session to register to attend. A Mentor may limit the number of attendees to a session. We hope for continuing good participation in these events.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

The Journey Takers, by Leslie Albrecht Huber, our featured speaker in September, is a brand new book about how to tell a family history engagingly. (See review.) You will find this volume listed with Biographies at 92 ALBRECHT.

Eight new books added to our collection in October were gifts from CCGS Member Mona Lamkin. These include several of interest to those researching Irish immigration, books of interest to those with ancestors from early Philadelphia, or Vermont, or those looking for information on the graveyards of New York City.

Irish Relatives and Friends is a collection of personal notices compiled by Laura Murphy DeGrazia and Diane Fitzpatrick Haberstroh from “Information Wanted” ads in the Irish-American 1850-1871, which was published in New York City for the Irish immigrant community. The book includes useful indexes of personal names, Irish place names, U.S. and other place names, and New York City street names. The book is listed under Sources at 929.3 DeG.

Grosse Ile, Gateway to Canada 1832-1937, by Marianna O’Gallagher is listed in our catalog under Canadian history at 971.6 O’GA. The book is an illustrated history of Grosse Ile in the St. Lawrence, which served as a human quarantine station for European immigrants to Canada, including many from Ireland. The volume includes an alphabetized list of orphans in the Catholic orphanage of Quebec in 1847.

Another book useful for researching immigration is Passenger Arrivals at the Port of Philadelphia 1800-1819, edited by Michael H. Tepper. The Philadelphia "Baggage Lists" are an extensive list of names arranged alphabetically by surname and including the name of the ship and date of arrival in port. You will find the book in our library among those on Sources at 929.3 TEP.

Philadelphia Maps, 1682-1982: Townships - Districts - Wards, is a guide to the history and chronological development of political divisions within the city of Philadelphia from early settlement to the present day. It is listed among Guides to research at 929.1 PHI.

Burial Grounds of Vermont, edited by Arthur L. and Frances P. Hyde, was published by the Vermont Old Cemetery Association in 1991. This is a comprehensive list, by county, of all cemeteries in Vermont including number of graves and dates of first and last burials. The book is listed under Cemeteries at 929.5 HYD.

Another book about burials in Vermont includes more extensive information than simply gravestones. Soldiers of the Revolutionary War Buried in Vermont, and anecdotes and incidents relating to some of them, was written by Walter H. Crockett, and delivered before the Vermont Historical Society in the Hall of the House of Representatives on October 27, 1904. There are 4,608 names of Vermont Revolutionary War soldiers. You will find the book among Sources at 929.3 CRO.

The Graveyard Shift, a Family Historian’s Guide to NYC Cemeteries, by Carolee Inskeep, was published in 2000. This alphabetical listing of cemeteries in New York City including a brief description and contact information for each, may be found under Cemeteries at 929.5 INS.

And finally, Your Family Reunion, How to Plan It, Organize It, and Enjoy It! by George G. Morgan describes a reunion from the planning and organizing stage to pursuing genealogical research during the festivities and staying in touch with relatives afterwards. This is a Guide to be found at 929.1 MOR.

Immediately after listening to our wonderful speaker, Leslie Albrecht Huber, at the September 2010 meeting of the Cape Cod Genealogical Society, library volunteers Brenda Hayes and Betsy Ferris scrambled to purchase Leslie’s latest volume for the CCGS Library. Her new book, The Journey Takers, is a story of her family, and even more a book about how to research and tell a family story, using many types of sources and resources, documenting information properly, and making the narrative as flowing and readable as a novel.

In this fascinating little tale are tips and inspiration for genealogist readers who travel vicariously with the author, chapter by chapter from Germany to Sweden, to England and back to Utah. The Journey Takers is listed in the Biography section of the CCGS Catalog of books under 92 ALBRECHT, Albrecht being the first family surname investigated along this literary journey. It is a wonderful read with extensive notes and bibliography.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

The New England Regional Genealogical Consortium, of which the Cape Cod Genealogical Society is a charter member, is sponsoring the Eleventh New England Regional Genealogical Conference this coming April 6 to 10, 2011, at the Sheraton Springfield Monarch Place and Springfield Marriott, in Springfield, Massachusetts. The 2011 NERGC Conference will have as its theme, Exploring New Paths to Your Past.

In keeping with the conference theme, Exploring New Paths to Your Past, NERGC 2011 will help genealogists explore:

*New research pathways, methodologies, and strategies, including technologies and online resources.

*The pathways their ancestors followed into and out of New England (including where and why they moved and settlement and migration patterns).

*New ways to plan and prepare for a successful research trip, including resources close to home.

*General genealogical skills and techniques.

*Family history writing and publishing.

The 2011 NERGC Conference will build upon our previous excellent conferences with informative speakers, interesting workshops, an ancestors road show, local interest activities, special interest groups, an exhibitors hall, a Society Fair, and luncheon and dinner banquets. The featured speakers will be John Philip Colletta and Paul Milner.
CCGS’s own Robert Ward will make a presentation on the Genealogical Resources of Cape Cod. He will include information about the genealogical and historical societies and library repositories of the Cape, including web resources, with a little bit of Cape Cod history.

Volunteers will be needed to help in all aspects of the conference. If interested, contact Christine Bard at bard@comcast.net.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Since 1973, the Ellis Island Oral History Program has been recording interviews with nearly 2,000 immigrants who came through Ellis Island during the years that the Immigration Station was in operation, 1892 through 1954. According to the National Park Service at Ellis Island, “Interviews since the mid 1980s have included accounts of everyday life in the country of origin, family history, motivation for immigration, the journey itself from home across the ocean to New York, arrival and processing at Ellis Island and adjustments to living in the United States.”

With the recent announcement of their Ellis Island Oral Histories collection, Ancestry.com has made these recordings available online. The recordings are free - you do not have to be a paid subscriber to Ancestry.com to hear them, although you’ll be asked to register with the site by giving your first and last names along with your email address.

Using Advanced Search you can look for oral histories by name, place of birth, age, name of the ship, and other keywords.

Even though your ancestor is unlikely to appear in the search results, others who have traveled from the same place of origin, or came on a similar voyage on the same ship may have had experiences close to those of your ancestors.

By listening to several interviews of people similar in circumstances to your ancestors you may be able extract the common experiences and apply them to your own narrative about your immigrant ancestors.

I've only just begun to explore this interesting database. Checking the ethnic backgrounds relevant to our household, I found 35 listings for Greece, over 150 for Poland, and 73 for Ireland. Next is a search on the names of the ships our ancestors came on to get the stories of what their trip may have been like.